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An Investigation into the Linguistic Competence of Chinese Heritage Language Learners.

Record Type:	Electronic resources : Monograph/item
Title/Author:	An Investigation into the Linguistic Competence of Chinese Heritage Language Learners./
Author:	Wang, Yuxiang.
Published:	Ann Arbor : ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, : 2020,
Description:	234 p.
Notes:	Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 81-12, Section: A.
Contained By:	Dissertations Abstracts International81-12A.
Subject:	Linguistics. -
Online resource:	http://pqdd.sinica.edu.tw/twdaoapp/servlet/advanced?query=27742077
ISBN:	9798645487324

An Investigation into the Linguistic Competence of Chinese Heritage Language Learners.
Wang, Yuxiang.

An Investigation into the Linguistic Competence of Chinese Heritage Language Learners. - Ann Arbor : ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 2020 - 234 p.

Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 81-12, Section: A.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of California, Davis, 2020.

This item must not be sold to any third party vendors.

This dissertation presents an inquiry into the Chinese linguistic competence of heritage learners of Chinese at the first-year college level as well as factors that influence the acquisition of this competence. The participants of this study were recruited from a Chinese heritage language (CHL) class in a northern California university, and data were collected with a set of tools consisting of one questionnaire, one vocabulary task, five oral interview tasks, and one storytelling task. The focus of observation is the participants' knowledge and skills of Chinese vocabulary and six representative grammar points (classifiers, aspect particle le, ba-construction, bi-construction, bei-construction and prepositional phrases [PPs]). Additionally, seven factors (five background factors, one background-related factor, and the task type) are examined with the Rbrul program to identify their influences on the development of the Chinese competence of CHL learners.Data analysis and discussion demonstrate that CHL learners at the first-year college level have acquired the core linguistic competence of Chinese, even though the competence is limited. First, while the vocabulary competence of CHL learners varies, they all have developed the proficiency of using the 100 most frequent words used by native Chinese speaking children. Thus, these 100 words can be regarded as the very core of the vocabulary acquired by CHL learners. Second, CHL learners have acquired the essential knowledge of Chinese grammar. They can use the grammar points observed in a native way. Such grammar competence differentiates CHL learners from L2 Chinese learners. Nevertheless, the core grammatical competence of CHL learners is very limited. Incomplete acquisition (as seen in using classifiers and prepositions), language attrition (as in using classifiers), and language transfer (as in using PPs and the ba-construction) are observed in the development process of their Chinese linguistic competence.Factor analysis shows that the age of primary language shifting is the strongest predictor in CHL learners' Chinese linguistic competence. Those who shifted their primary language from Chinese to English before the boundary age (10 years old) perform worse than the others do. The second strongest predictor is motivation. Identity motivation and identity-related language motivation are most positive for CHL acquisition. As for family language, balanced use of Chinese and English in the family promotes more heritage language acquisition than using Chinese only, and more English use than Chinese in the family has a negative influence. Overall Chinese use outside of the classroom and number of Chinese-speaking friends show the same tendency of influence: Those who used least Chinese outside the classroom and had fewest Chinese-speaking friends (<10% Chinese use; 0 friends) performed best, while those who used a little more Chinese and had a few more Chinese-speaking friends (10%-30% Chinese use; 1-2 friends) performed worst. This may be caused by low-quality Chinese input from their interlocutors; however, a wider variety of input may mitigate this negative impact, and this is why the language performance of those who used most Chinese and had most Chinese-speaking friends (30%-50% Chinese use; 3-5 friends) was in the middle. Frequent Chinese use in the family of the lowest groups (<10% Chinese use; 0 friends) may be another explanation for this competence distribution, as learners in the lowest groups used Chinese at least half of the time at home. Yes number (the number of participants' yes responses to 10 yes/no questions about their CHL learning experiences) and task type are not strong predictors in CHL learners' linguistic competence. Deviation exists in the general trend of each factor's influence, which may be caused by the low-quality input, the influence of English, the investigated language item itself, and/or task content, etc.Knowing CHL learners' core linguistic competence will help teachers keep Chinese input in teaching within the "zone of proximal development" (Vygotsky, 1978) and mitigate CHL learners' learning anxiety (Xiao & Wong, 2014), and thus facilitate their CHL acquisition. Awareness of the influential factors on CHL learners' linguistic competence will also benefit CHL teaching and acquisition, as well as help CHL maintenance.

ISBN: 9798645487324Subjects--Topical Terms:

524476
Linguistics.
Subjects--Index Terms:

Age of primary language shifting

An Investigation into the Linguistic Competence of Chinese Heritage Language Learners.
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245 1 3 $a An Investigation into the Linguistic Competence of Chinese Heritage Language Learners.
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300 $a 234 p.
500 $a Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 81-12, Section: A.
500 $a Advisor: Chu, Chengzhi.
502 $a Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of California, Davis, 2020.
506 $a This item must not be sold to any third party vendors.
520 $a This dissertation presents an inquiry into the Chinese linguistic competence of heritage learners of Chinese at the first-year college level as well as factors that influence the acquisition of this competence. The participants of this study were recruited from a Chinese heritage language (CHL) class in a northern California university, and data were collected with a set of tools consisting of one questionnaire, one vocabulary task, five oral interview tasks, and one storytelling task. The focus of observation is the participants' knowledge and skills of Chinese vocabulary and six representative grammar points (classifiers, aspect particle le, ba-construction, bi-construction, bei-construction and prepositional phrases [PPs]). Additionally, seven factors (five background factors, one background-related factor, and the task type) are examined with the Rbrul program to identify their influences on the development of the Chinese competence of CHL learners.Data analysis and discussion demonstrate that CHL learners at the first-year college level have acquired the core linguistic competence of Chinese, even though the competence is limited. First, while the vocabulary competence of CHL learners varies, they all have developed the proficiency of using the 100 most frequent words used by native Chinese speaking children. Thus, these 100 words can be regarded as the very core of the vocabulary acquired by CHL learners. Second, CHL learners have acquired the essential knowledge of Chinese grammar. They can use the grammar points observed in a native way. Such grammar competence differentiates CHL learners from L2 Chinese learners. Nevertheless, the core grammatical competence of CHL learners is very limited. Incomplete acquisition (as seen in using classifiers and prepositions), language attrition (as in using classifiers), and language transfer (as in using PPs and the ba-construction) are observed in the development process of their Chinese linguistic competence.Factor analysis shows that the age of primary language shifting is the strongest predictor in CHL learners' Chinese linguistic competence. Those who shifted their primary language from Chinese to English before the boundary age (10 years old) perform worse than the others do. The second strongest predictor is motivation. Identity motivation and identity-related language motivation are most positive for CHL acquisition. As for family language, balanced use of Chinese and English in the family promotes more heritage language acquisition than using Chinese only, and more English use than Chinese in the family has a negative influence. Overall Chinese use outside of the classroom and number of Chinese-speaking friends show the same tendency of influence: Those who used least Chinese outside the classroom and had fewest Chinese-speaking friends (<10% Chinese use; 0 friends) performed best, while those who used a little more Chinese and had a few more Chinese-speaking friends (10%-30% Chinese use; 1-2 friends) performed worst. This may be caused by low-quality Chinese input from their interlocutors; however, a wider variety of input may mitigate this negative impact, and this is why the language performance of those who used most Chinese and had most Chinese-speaking friends (30%-50% Chinese use; 3-5 friends) was in the middle. Frequent Chinese use in the family of the lowest groups (<10% Chinese use; 0 friends) may be another explanation for this competence distribution, as learners in the lowest groups used Chinese at least half of the time at home. Yes number (the number of participants' yes responses to 10 yes/no questions about their CHL learning experiences) and task type are not strong predictors in CHL learners' linguistic competence. Deviation exists in the general trend of each factor's influence, which may be caused by the low-quality input, the influence of English, the investigated language item itself, and/or task content, etc.Knowing CHL learners' core linguistic competence will help teachers keep Chinese input in teaching within the "zone of proximal development" (Vygotsky, 1978) and mitigate CHL learners' learning anxiety (Xiao & Wong, 2014), and thus facilitate their CHL acquisition. Awareness of the influential factors on CHL learners' linguistic competence will also benefit CHL teaching and acquisition, as well as help CHL maintenance.
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653 $a Age of primary language shifting
653 $a Chinese heritage language
653 $a Chinese heritage language acquisition
653 $a Language input
653 $a Linguistic competence
653 $a Rbrul analysis
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710 2 $a University of California, Davis. $b Linguistics. $3 1672057
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793 $a English
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